


Space Ranger Partners

by Lionescence



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, I gave the wolf a name, Lance mans up, M/M, Post-S6, mentions of Keith's dad and Krolia, so many damned feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 21:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15034025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionescence/pseuds/Lionescence
Summary: Time changes a lot of things. Two years for Keith, a bunch of weeks for Lance.It was time to meet in the middle.





	Space Ranger Partners

Shiro had died. Shiro had _died_ , his body gone, but his essence — his soul — was in the Black Lion all along.

And Lance had heard him, back on Olkarion. He had, but he hadn’t understood.

Shiro was back now. Old soul, new body. Back, and exhausted from… everything his body had been through, everything his soul had been through.

And his heart?

Lance looked around for a moment, and found Shiro’s heart sitting a little ways away from the Black Lion, his new pet wolf curled close to him.

It was their second night on the moon, taking time to rest and plan their next actions. Krolia had sent a report to Kolivan back at the Blade of Marmora, and put in a request for a team of Galra surgeons to meet them on Olkarion, so they can remove the last of any Galra tech in Shiro’s arm, and discuss a replacement. Romelle, Allura, and Coran were off in their own corner, their conversations about Altea going from the past and into the present. Pidge and Hunk were moving from Lion to Lion, running diagnostics and checking systems.

Krolia, as practical as her son, was taking inventory of their supplies.

Lance took a breath, and moved towards where Keith sat. “Hey.”

Keith looked up from idly stroking his wolf, and smiled. “Hey.”

He was taller, definitely. That had been clear when he’d first returned. Keith used to be a couple of inches shorter than Lance, but now he had maybe an inch on the Blue Paladin. He was broader, too, shoulders strong and chest filled out. He was probably still small by Galra standards, given Krolia was taller still, but he was formidable now. Powerful.

But so still.

That was something Lance couldn’t get used to. Time-warped Keith had a stillness about him, something that was deeply anchored somewhere instead of constantly trying to reach out and scrabbling to hold on. Even now, sitting there, he seemed heavier, more solid, but he held his chin higher, his back straighter.

Lance dropped himself on the other side of the wolf, offered it his hand. It took a sniff, and then pushed its muzzle into it. “So, what do you call it?”

“She’s called Halley,” he said, scratching behind her ears. She made a sound, halfway between a purr and a growl, enjoying the attention from both Paladins.

“Like the comet?”

Keith nodded. “It’s… where she came from. Crashed right into the space whale. And Mom couldn’t pronounce Hyakutake.”

“Sounds like it was a wild time,” Lance offered.

A faraway look settled in Keith’s eyes, and he looked back out to the horizon, shrugging. “It was time. It was… time I needed. Time we both needed.”

Two years for Keith. Only weeks for the rest of them. Two years to get to know the mother who left him behind, to raise a pet wolf, to grow and settle. Lance still got chills at the memory of Lotor’s words, about how he would wipe out all Galra despite being part Galra himself, and meanwhile Keith seemed to have quietly embraced his Galra blood, wearing it with pride, and honour.

Two years, Lance realized, to grieve.

They hadn’t known, but Shiro had died. They hadn’t gone out looking for him, but Keith had. They had moved on, but Keith hadn’t. They had done and said things that they can never take back, because Keith had been grieving and they had paid him no notice, given him no time. And he paid the price of their neglect alone.

The burn scar on his cheek made him look both older, and more innocent.

“Thank you, Lance.”

If Lance had been standing, he would have crashed to his knees. But he was sitting, and he had nowhere to fall, though his stomach seemed to sink to his ankles. His neck ached from the speed with which he snapped around, to catch the smallest smile that lit up indigo eyes into something unreal.

“Thank me? For what?”

Keith’s stillness was unnerving, but also strangely calming. A quiet, dormant volcano, not to be underestimated, not to be taken lightly, but warm and sure and everything a leader should be. Everything Shiro had hoped for, everything they had doubted. “I heard you, while I was racing to get back. I heard you take charge, keep everyone safe, back them up when they needed you. You did a great job, while I wasn’t there. You protected the team. So, thank you.”

“I —” And it was somehow hard to find something to say to that. Not with the way their relationship had always been. Not when there was so much sincerity it was almost too much for the Blue Paladin’s heart. “Um. You’re… welcome. I was… just doing my job, really.”

There was that smile again. That small, serene thing. It occurred to Lance that Keith had waited all these years for the two that were gifted to him, in the middle of a war, to find the kind of peace that allowed him to finally grow into his own skin. To find himself loved, to learn to be loved.

Lance would never know what that felt like. He’d never known loss, the way Keith had known loss — his mother, his father, Shiro — and he’d never _not_ known love. That time and love was all it took to give Keith peace. That they could have given him those things had they shut up for just a minute and really looked, really listened.

If Lance had really looked, really listened, he’d have realized that something was wrong with Shiro, too.

“You’re a good right hand,” Keith said, absently, meaningfully. “I believed in you. And you didn’t let me down.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah, well. Except when you told me to leave the math to Pidge, turned out you figured you were the spare. You believed in me more than you believed in yourself. Do you really think that was fair?”

For a moment, Lance regretted what he said. Keith’s back went rigid, and Halley whined next to him, immediately sensing a kind of distress. But Keith relaxed again, planted his hand firmly in Halley’s fur, quietly insisting he was all right. Any other time, and Lance would make fun of the fact that Keith got on better with animals than with people. Right now, it was just another thing that was so telling about the Red Paladin.

“I’m sorry,” and Lance meant it. Had meant it for a long time, just had too much pride to admit it. “You were… you were grieving. You were _hurting_ , and we didn’t help you. We didn’t even try. We just… pushed you and pushed you, until you went away. And god, I accused you of eyeing Shiro’s spot as leader when you —”

“It’s been over two years for me since then, Lance.” Lance wanted to punch him, because he didn’t deserve the kindness in that voice. “It’s… it is what it is. It’s fine.”

“Maybe for you, but it isn’t for me!”

That made Keith pause. His hand stalled in Halley’s fur mid-stroke, and at the sudden change in volume Halley turned her head towards Lance, a low growl in her throat. All it took was a soft hush from Keith, and she stilled, keeping an eye on the Blue Paladin.

“I was an _ass_ to you,” Lance went on, softer now. “I was always an ass to you, when you just… wanted to do the right thing. When all you wanted was time to deal with things. I was jealous and petty and now you’ve had two years and I’ll never catch up to you —”

“Lance,” and it was kind, patient. If he hadn’t been listening, it almost sounded like it was Shiro. “I don’t want you to catch up to me. Just like I didn’t want when everyone wanted me to catch up to Shiro. I just… want you to be you. And there’s a lot of good things there. A bunch of asshole things, yeah, but mostly… good. I wouldn’t have put my faith in you if I thought any different.”

Lance found himself swallowing a retort. Keith had faith in him. He’d said so once already, in the last ten minutes, but the second time seemed to hammer it home. For all that Lance had done to Keith, Keith had only seen _him_ , taken note of who he was and what he was capable of. He’d entrusted the Red Lion to him, his bayard, his role as the right hand, and had never once said that he’d been undeserving.

“I mean, you heard her, right?”

“What?”

Keith had that distant look in his eyes again, hand still combing through the fur of Halley’s ruff. “When we got Shiro back. When the Lions called out. You heard Blue, didn’t you?”

Lance blinked. That was true. It was only a moment, but Blue’s call had sung to him loud and clear. He hadn’t heard Red at all. “I — yeah. How did you…?”

“Because Red called to me,” he said. “And Black was announcing the return of her Paladin. So, I guess, once Shiro’s back on his feet, we’ll be going back to where we were before. We’ll need Allura to focus on her new powers, and we’re gonna need her when we start rebuilding the Castle.”

That was all well and good and obvious. Lance had overheard Allura talking with Coran about learning more about her powers and testing their limits. And he missed Blue; Red wasn’t nearly as chatty. But there was still that lingering question, from back when they were on Earth.

“How do you do that? That… thing with the Lions? You heard Blue when you didn’t even know what she was. And you said Red rejected you at first so she couldn’t have called out to you… And then you got Black to help you.”

Keith shrugged at this, sighing. “I still don’t know. I… I asked Mom, and she doesn’t know, either. It doesn’t seem to be a Galra thing.”

“How do you know your dad wasn’t an alien, too?”

This time Keith barked out a laugh, and it was such a good sound that Lance wished they’d made him laugh more. Shaking his head, Keith said, “My dad was a firefighter. I don’t think he ever even left the state, nevermind the planet.” There came another sigh, a more melancholic one, even though his smile stayed.

“You know,” Lance ventured, “I didn’t know that. About your dad. I don’t think you’ve ever talked about him.”

Keith nodded, and Lance didn’t know that the Red Paladin could get any softer, any gentler in expression. “I had two years to talk to Mom about him. We both needed it. She… hadn’t known he was gone.”

“I see. I’m… I’m sorry.” Because he was. Because he had never known that kind of loss. “But you got that time. And a space wolf.”

Halley seemed to understand ‘space wolf’, as she immediately perked up, and launched herself into Lance, determinedly licking his face. Lance bust out laughing, enjoying the fact that there was a dog in the family now, even though she would always and only ever answer to Keith.

“Yeah, she’s great.” At the sound of her master’s voice, Halley left Lance and went back to plop her head in Keith’s lap, that odd purr-growl rumbling from her chest. “She’s been… really good for me.”

“And she’ll be great for Shiro, too!” At Keith’s blank look, he went on, “You know? Like a therapy dog?”

Lance, at this exact moment, felt his brain short-circuit, because he never thought he’d see the day a blush crawled up Keith Kogane’s face. It immediately took away those extra two years, made him younger again. “Uh. Yeah. I… kinda thought… about that. Yeah.”

There was also a new smile, small and shy yet utterly brilliant in meaning. Something full and bright in his eyes, and Lance knew at once, that this was Keith, loved, loving, and _in love_ , and if that was enough to calm the heart of the Guardian Spirit of Fire, then they were on their way to winning this war.

“You really do love him, don’t you?”

Keith minus the two years would have sputtered, spit, crossed his arms and snarled some kind of denial, shutting down everything and shutting out everyone. This Keith did nothing but sit, that smile still on his face.

It was a good look. And speaking of…

“Looks like your hair grew in those two years, huh.”

Lance felt a little bad that at the mention of his hair, Keith drew a long-suffering sigh and rolled his eyes, like he’d been waiting for the teasing and poking at his expense. But it was time to end that, and make a peace offering.

“I’m just saying… it’s long enough to braid. And I know a lot of good braids. French braid, Dutch braid, Leia buns, ooh, I do a mean fishtail braid…”

The Red and Blue Paladins stared at each other, for an awkward moment. Halley, between them, looked at them in turn, as though trying to understand what was happening in this beat of silence.

Eventually, Keith released a low chuckle, and said, “Could you do one that would make Kolivan jealous?”

Lance beamed, then cracked his knuckles. “Honey, I’mma make all the Galra jealous. Shiro will have to fight them all off.”

“… will Shiro like it?”

“It’s you. He’ll love it.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lance gives Keith a fishtail braid, and it looks ace on him. 
> 
> I have so many feelings, people. So many. Like, I can't believe we got the story we got. I'm supposed to be working on a lot of other things but FEELINGS, DAMMIT.


End file.
